May 11, 1976:
52 USC 30121: Contributions and donations by foreign nationals
Text contains those laws in effect on October 25, 2019
From Title 52-VOTING AND ELECTIONS
Subtitle III-Federal Campaign Finance
CHAPTER 301-FEDERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGNS
SUBCHAPTER I-DISCLOSURE OF FEDERAL CAMPAIGN FUNDS
It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election.
June 15, 2019:
Ellen Weintraub, Head of the Federal Election Commission tweet confirms –
It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election.
July 25, 2019 (directly from the official White House transcript):
Trump said to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy –
Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.
*
I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike … I guess you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you are surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you say yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.
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A whistleblower with knowledge of the phone call made a complaint to Trump-appointed Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who deemed the complaint “serious” and “urgent,” but acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire declined to release the contents of the whistleblower complaint to Congress after consulting with the Justice Department. This set off a firestorm on Capitol Hill, and lawmakers called for Trump to be impeached following claims that the president pressured Ukraine to investigate the 2020 Democratic presidential front-runner and his son Hunter Biden.
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Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act) and Commission regulations, advisory opinions, and relevant case law for additional information. The Act and Commission regulations include a broad prohibition on foreign national activity in connection with elections in the United States. 52 U.S.C. § 30121 and generally, 11 CFR 110.20.
In general, foreign nationals are prohibited from the following activities:
Making any contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or making any expenditure, independent expenditure, disbursement in connection with any federal, state or local election in the United States;
Making any contribution or donation to any committee or organization of any national, state, district, or local political party (including donations to a party nonfederal account or office building account);
Making any disbursement for an electioneering communication;
Making any donation to a presidential inaugural committee.
Persons who knowingly and willfully engage in these activities may be subject to an FEC enforcement action, criminal prosecution, or both.
Definition
The following groups and individuals are considered “foreign nationals” and are subject to the prohibition:
Foreign citizens (not including dual citizens of the United States);
Immigrants who are not lawfully admitted for permanent residence;
Foreign governments;
Foreign political parties;
Foreign corporations;
Foreign associations;
Foreign partnerships; and
Any other foreign principal, as defined at 22 U.S.C. § 611(b), which includes a foreign organization or “other combination of persons organized under the laws of or having its principal place of business in a foreign country.”
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§30121. Contributions and donations by foreign nationals
(a) Prohibition
It shall be unlawful for-
(1) a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make-
(A) a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election;
(B) a contribution or donation to a committee of a political party; or
(C) an expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication (within the meaning of section 30104(f)(3) of this title); or
(2) a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national.
(b) “Foreign national” defined
As used in this section, the term “foreign national” means-
(1) a foreign principal, as such term is defined by section 611(b) of title 22, except that the term “foreign national” shall not include any individual who is a citizen of the United States; or
(2) an individual who is not a citizen of the United States or a national of the United States (as defined in section 1101(a)(22) of title 8) and who is not lawfully admitted for permanent residence, as defined by section 1101(a)(20) of title 8.
(Pub. L. 92–225, title III, §319, formerly §324, as added Pub. L. 94–283, title I, §112(2), May 11, 1976, 90 Stat. 493 ; renumbered §319, Pub. L. 96–187, title I, §105(5), Jan. 8, 1980, 93 Stat. 1354 ; amended Pub. L. 107–155, title III, §§303, 317, Mar. 27, 2002, 116 Stat. 96 , 109.)
Codification
Section was formerly classified to section 441e of Title 2, The Congress, prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.
Prior Provisions
A prior section 319 of Pub. L. 92–225 was renumbered section 314, and is classified to section 30115 of this title.
Another prior section 319 of Pub. L. 92–225 was renumbered section 318, and was classified to section 439b of Title 2, The Congress, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 96–187.
Amendments
2002-Pub. L. 107–155, §303(1), substituted “Contributions and donations by foreign nationals” for “Contributions by foreign nationals” in section catchline.
Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 107–155, §303(2), added subsec. (a) and struck out former subsec. (a) which read as follows: “It shall be unlawful for a foreign national directly or through any other person to make any contribution of money or other thing of value, or to promise expressly or impliedly to make any such contribution, in connection with an election to any political office or in connection with any primary election, convention, or caucus held to select candidates for any political office; or for any person to solicit, accept, or receive any such contribution from a foreign national.”
Subsec. (b)(2). Pub. L. 107–155, §317, inserted “or a national of the United States (as defined in section 1101(a)(22) of title 8)” after “United States”.
Effective Date of 2002 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 107–155 effective Nov. 6, 2002, see section 402 of Pub. L. 107–155, set out as an Effective Date of 2002 Amendment; Regulations note under section 30101 of this title.
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Full Copy of phone transcript (directly) from (and without any text correction):
Click to access Unclassified09.2019.pdf
MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
SUBJECT:
PARTICIPANTS:
DATE, TIME
AND PLACE:
(C) Telephone Conversation with President
Zelenskyy of Ukraine
Pre·sident Zelenskyy of . Ukraine
Notetakers: The White House Situation·Room
July 25, 2019, 9:03 – 9:33 a.m. EDT
Residence
(S/NF) The President: Congratulations on a great victory. We all
watched from the United States and you did a terrific.job. The
way.you came from behind, -somebody who wasn’t given much of a
chan�e, and you ended up winning ea�ily. It’� a fantastic
achievement. Congratulations.
(:J;’UP’ President Zelenskyy: You· are absolutely right Mr.
Presideht.• We did win big and we worked hard for _this. We worked
a lot but I would like to confe$s to you that I had �n
opportunity to learn from you. We used quite a few of your
skills· and knowledge and were able to use .it as an example to·r
our ele.ctions -and.yes it is-true that these were unique
elections. We were in a·unique situation· that we· were able to
CAUTION: A Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation.· (TELCON) is not a verbatim transcript of a
discussion. The text in this document records the notes and recollections of Situation Room Duty
“Officers and-NSC policy staff assigned t_o listen.and memorialize the conversation in written form
as the conversation takes place. A numper of factors can affect ‘the accuracy of the reco�d,
including poor telecommunications connections and variations in accent and/or interpretation.
The word “inaudible” is used to indifate portions of a conversation that the notetaker was unable
to hear.
Classified By: 2354726
Derived.From: NSC SCG
Declassify On: 20441231
– lJNCLASSIFIED
SECRf3Cf’;’,’ORCOt VJ ,Of ORi,
2 UNC AS IFIED
achieve a unique success. I’m able to tell you the following;
the first time,\ you· called me to · congratulate .
me .when I won my
presid�ntial election, and the second time you are now calling
me when my party won the parliamentary election. I think I
should run more often so you can call me more often and we can
talk over the phone more often.
(�;’!��) The Pre�:ddent: [laughter] That’s a very good idea. T ·
think your c·ount,ry is very happy about that.
(S/iQl’,. President Zelenskyy: Well yes, to tell you the truth, we
are trying to work hard because we wanted to drain the swamp
here in our country. We brought in many many new people. Not the
old politicians, not the typical politicians, because we want to
have a new format and a new type of government .. You are a great
teacher for us and in that.
(3/H!i, The President: Well it 1 s·very nice of you .to say that. I
will say that we do ·a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot . of effort
and a lot.of time. Much more than the European countries are
·’doing and they should be helping.you more than.they are. Germany
does almost nothing for you. All they do is talk and I think
it’s something that you should ·really ask them about. When I.was·
·speaking to Angela Merkel she talks Ukraine, but she ·doesn’t do·
anything. A lot of the European countries are the. same way· so I
think it’s.something you want to look at but the United States
has been very ·very good to Ukraine. I wouldn’t say that it’s
reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not
good but the United States has been very very
.
good to Ukraine.
(3/MF) President Zelenskyy: Yes you are·absolutely right. �ot
.only 100%, but actually 1000% arid I can tell you the following;
I did talk to Angela �erkel and I did meet.with her. I also met
and talked withMacron . and I told them that they are not doing
quite as much as they need to be doing·on the issues with the
sanctions. They are not enforcing the sanctions. They are not
working as much as
.
they should work for Ukraine� It turns out
that even though logically, the European Union should be our
biggest· partner but technically the United States is a much
bigger partner than.the European Union and- I’m very grateful to
you for that because the United States is doing quite a· lot for
Ukraine. Much more than the E”�ropean Union especially when we
are talking about sanctions against the Russia,n Federation. r·
· would also·li�e to thank you·for.your great support iri the area
of defense. . We. are ready to continue to cooperate for the next
steps. specifically we a·re almost. ready to buy more Javelins from
·_ the United· States for defense purposes ..
.__
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•t:�;’HP) The· President: I would like you to do us a favor though
because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a
lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with
this whole si�uation with Ukraine, they s_ay Crowdstrike … I guess
you have one of your weal thy people… The server, they say
Ukraine has.it� There- are a lot. of things that went on, the·
:whole situation .. I think you 1 re _surrounding yourse·lf with some
of the same people. I .
would like to have the Attorney General
call you or your people and I would like you t� ·get to the
bottom of it�. As you sa� yest�rday, that whole nonsetise ended
with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mue�le_r, an
incompetent performance-, _but they. say a lot of it started with
Ukraine. Whatever you can do, ·it’s very important that· you. do it
if that’s possible.
(l!l-,’HP) President Zelenskyy: Yes it is. very important for me and
everything that you just mentioned earlier. For me as a
President,-· it is very important and we are open for any future
cooperation. We are ready to· open a new page on �ooperation in
. relations between the United· States and Ukraine.· For that·
purpose, I just recalled our.ambassador from United States and
he will be replaced by a very competent and very experienced
ambassador who wtll work hard on making sure that our two
nations are getting clciser. I would also like and hope to see
him having your trust and y9ur .confidence and _ have persona·1
relations·with you so we c�n cooperate even �ore so. I·
wili.
personally tell you that one· of my assistants· spoke with Mr.
Giuliani just.recently and we are hoping very much that Mr.
G1uliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and. we will meet once
· he co�es to Ukraine. I just wanted to assure you once again_that
you _have nobody but friends around-us. I w.ill make sure -that-I
surro�nd myself with the best and most experienced people._ I
also· wanted to ·tell you that we are friends. We are great·
friends and you Mr. President have. friends -in our country so we
can continue our strategic·�artn�rship. I also plan to surround
· myself with great people ·and in addition to that investigation,
I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the
investigations.will be done_openly and candidly .. That I can
assure you ..
(:9/MF� The Pre·sident: Good because I· heard you had a prosecutor
who· was very·good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair.
_·A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your
�ery good prosecutor down and you had some �ery bad people
involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the_
mayor bf New York Ci:ty, a great mayor, and I would like him to
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call you. I will ask him to call yoti along with the Attorney·_
·· General.· :Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very
capable guy. If you could _speak to him that would be great. The
former ambassador from the United $tates,· the woman., was bad
news �nd th� people she was dealing with in .the Ukraine .were bad
news so I jtist wan� to_let you know that� The ot�er thing,
There’s a lot 6f. talk about Biden’s son,. that Eiden stopped the
prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so
whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great.
Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if
you ·can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.
(S;’ti!F) President Zelenskyy: I wanted to tell ·you about the
prosecutor� First df �11 I understand arid I’m kn6wledgeable
.abotit the situation. Sine� we ha�e �on· the ab�olute majority in
our Parliament; the next prosecutor .general will be 100%_ my
person, my c’andidate, who will be approved, by the parliament and
will start. a_s a new prosecutor in September. He or she will look.
into the situation, specifically to the company that you
-mentioned in :this issue. The issue of the investigation of the
case is �ctually the issui of �aking sure to res�o�e the honesty
so we will take care of.that and wi11·wo:tk on the investigation
of the case. On top of that, I would kindly ask you if you have
any additional information that you can provide ·to µs, it would_
be very helpful · for the investigation t·o make· su.re that we
administer justice i’:r1 our country with regc:ird: to the Ambassador
to the United States from Ukraine as far as I recall her name
was Ivanovicli. It was great that you were the first one. who told
me that she was a bad ambassador because I agree·with you 100%.
Her attitude to.wards me was far from the best as she admired the
previous President and she was on his· side. She would not accept
�e as a new President· well enough.
. . . .
(3/MF) The President: Well,
·she’ s going tO go through some
things. I will. have Mr. Giuliani.give you a call and I _ am. also
going to have.Attorney General Barr call and we will get to· the
bottom of it. I’m sure you will figure it o�t. I heard the
prosecutor was treated very badly and he was a very fa�r
prosecuto_r so good luck with everything. Your. economy is going-·
to get better and bett.er I pre.diet. You have a lot· of a,ssets.
It’s a great country. I have many Ukrainian friends, their
incredible ·people.
(B/MF�- President Z�lenskyy: I would like to tell you that I also
have.quite a few·Ukrain1an friends that live iri the United·
States. ·Actually last time I traveled to the Unit’ed States, I
stayed in New York n�ar Central Park and I stayed at the Trump_ UN�� �—–,… –..J ��µ._;,�…..;._�.!…,_..:_ ��–��/ .m,
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Tower. I will t
·alk to thetn and I hope to see t_hem· again in the
future. I also w·anted to _
.thank you .for your invitation to visit
the United States, specifically Washington DC. On ,the other
hand, I also wartt td ensur� ·you that we will. be ��ry serious
about.the case and will work on the investigation. As to.the
economy, there is much potential for our two countries and one _
of· the ·issues. that is ve:;ry important for Ukraine is· energy
independence. I believe we can b� very succ�ssful. and
cooperating on energy independence witp United States. We -are
already working on cooperation. We are buying Americ�n oil but I
am very hopeful for- ·a future meeting. We will have more time and
more opportunitie� to discuss these opportunities· and get to
know each other better. I would like to thank you very much for
your sv.pport –
(8/Ui?� · The President: Good. Well., thank you very much and I
appreciate that. I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to.·
call. Thank you. Whenever you would like -to come to the White
House,. feel ·fr�e to call. ·Give us a date and we’ll work that.
out. I ·1ook forward to seeing you.
(:9/Nil?) · President ·zelens�yy: Thank ·you very much. I would be very
happy to come and would be happy to meet with you per�onally and
I . .
. get to know. you better. ::r: am l.ooking forward to our meeting arid
I .also would like
·
-to invite you to visit Ukraine and come to the
city bf Kyiv which is a beautiful city. We have a beautiful
country Which would welcome you. On the other hand, I believe
that on Septernber_l we will be in Poland and we can meet in
Poland hopefully. After that,· it might be a very good idea for
you to.travel to Ukraine. We can either take my plane and go to
Ukraine or we can take your plane, which is probably mucl� better
than mine.
(�/MF) ‘The President: Okay,. ·we can work that ·out. I look forwar·a
to seeing you in Washington and maybe in· Poland bec·ause I think
we are going to be there at that tlme .
. {�/MF) · President · Zelenskyy: Thank you very much Mr. President.
(El/HF� The President:· Congratulations on· a fantastic job you’ve
done-. The whole world was watching. I’m not sure it was so much
of an upset but congratulations.
(B/HF’ President Zelenskyy: Thank you Mr. President bye-bye ..
End of Conversation
Michael Ruark 